I started out the week reading Stephen Covey's "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People", which talks about planning one's week in advance according to one's driving principles, roles, and goals. So far, so good.
Monday - cleaned the house, did most of the laundry, worked with the kids to make birthday presents, and prepared a birthday dinner for Cassie. After all that, the kitchen was clean.
Tuesday - Took an 'office' day which means the boys went to daycare. I did some unemployment sundries, post-door64 contact processing, and finished up the laundry. I also took the kids to soccer practice, ney coached the dang soccer practice. I was tired.
Wednesday - man, I got a lot of stuff done today. errands, lunch with a buddy, fixed the commode and applied 4 coats of sealant on the kitchen table (way past due). I also got started on Mint for our finances and I baked an apple pie! It was delish by the way. Ate some after I got back from choir practice.
Who says being unemployed is restful? Besides, I start back at Alterpoint as a consultant tomorrow, working Thursdays and Fridays. Should be good.
The point, is that the seven habits book is coming in pretty handy. I like the ideas a lot. I like the positive psychology. I'm going to keep reading.
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Friday, March 06, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Mutant chip
More of a pod really. In my bag of chips at Thundercloud. Maybe I'll set it next to my bed and fall asleep and we'll see what happens.
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
3M Race Report
Well, it turned out pretty well, despite my attempts to sabotage it.
I ran it in 2:01:19 with negative splits 9:24 pace for first 10K and 9:08 for the second.
The leadup:
Training without a group is hard. Training during the holidays is hard. I've probably been averaging about 15 miles a week and probably totaled 15 miles for the two weeks leading up the race. I went out the night before the race and had three glasses of champagne and a scotch (don't ask me why). I got home and didn't even do my night-before ritual of laying out my stuff, pinning my bib, etc.
Pre-race:
I woke up at 5 wanting to scrap it. However, Stephanie was meeting me to run the race and chat along the way and I didn't feel right about flaking out on her. As it turned out, running with her made all the difference, even beyond actually getting me to the race. I rushed through getting my stuff together (no pins in the goodie bag! grrrr), scarfed a bowl of raisin bran, and headed out.
It was cold. I met up with Stephanie at 6:15 and we went through our warmup. We both had to hit the port-o-lets after that and they were super busy. No big deal if we started late however. We ended up scrunching in on the wrong side of the chute fence but still passing the start line within a minute or two of the gun.
During the race:
We took the first hill at a nice comfortable 9:30 pace. I was actually a little worried that I'd be ok at this pace and then die at mile 10 (kinda like the San Antonio half). We pretty much settled in. It was nice running and talking. It had been a while since I'd talked with Stephanie and so there was a lot to catch up on. A couple times, I looked at the watch and realized we were running a little faster than my 9:30 suggestion. However, Stephanie was egging me on a little bit and I felt ok, so no big deal. That's also when the goal time (originally 2:15) began to inch downward. At some point Stephanie said she'd be "happy" with 2:05. Who am I to deny someone their happiness?
We went on that way pretty much the whole time. Thankfully, we saw a whole bunch of folks we knew. Running with Stephanie was like being with a running celebrity as everyone was yelling at her. I created a contest out of it and she beat me about 12 folks to my 5.
The turn down Burnet was really the only stretch that almost wasn't pleasant. Burnet is kind of long, straight, and boring. I was pointing out a lot of good restaurants though (Phil's Ice House, Frisco, etc). That probably helped me at least. The final uphill section from Burnet to Duval was a little longer than I remembered, but I felt really surprisingly good. The weather was just perfect.
On the Duval leg, I felt like turning it up a bit. It was obvious we were going to be able to hit the 2:05 goal and I wanted to see how far under we could get. We caught up to Foho with about 2 miles to go. She had passed us earlier and was now struggling a little bit. I felt like turning on the burners and Stephanie stayed back to yell at... I mean encourage Foho. I passed a bunch of folks in the last mile and sprinted the end. Foho did great, PRing and beating my chip time.
Conclusions:
I ran it in 2:01:19 with negative splits 9:24 pace for first 10K and 9:08 for the second.
The leadup:
Training without a group is hard. Training during the holidays is hard. I've probably been averaging about 15 miles a week and probably totaled 15 miles for the two weeks leading up the race. I went out the night before the race and had three glasses of champagne and a scotch (don't ask me why). I got home and didn't even do my night-before ritual of laying out my stuff, pinning my bib, etc.
Pre-race:
I woke up at 5 wanting to scrap it. However, Stephanie was meeting me to run the race and chat along the way and I didn't feel right about flaking out on her. As it turned out, running with her made all the difference, even beyond actually getting me to the race. I rushed through getting my stuff together (no pins in the goodie bag! grrrr), scarfed a bowl of raisin bran, and headed out.
It was cold. I met up with Stephanie at 6:15 and we went through our warmup. We both had to hit the port-o-lets after that and they were super busy. No big deal if we started late however. We ended up scrunching in on the wrong side of the chute fence but still passing the start line within a minute or two of the gun.
During the race:
We took the first hill at a nice comfortable 9:30 pace. I was actually a little worried that I'd be ok at this pace and then die at mile 10 (kinda like the San Antonio half). We pretty much settled in. It was nice running and talking. It had been a while since I'd talked with Stephanie and so there was a lot to catch up on. A couple times, I looked at the watch and realized we were running a little faster than my 9:30 suggestion. However, Stephanie was egging me on a little bit and I felt ok, so no big deal. That's also when the goal time (originally 2:15) began to inch downward. At some point Stephanie said she'd be "happy" with 2:05. Who am I to deny someone their happiness?
We went on that way pretty much the whole time. Thankfully, we saw a whole bunch of folks we knew. Running with Stephanie was like being with a running celebrity as everyone was yelling at her. I created a contest out of it and she beat me about 12 folks to my 5.
The turn down Burnet was really the only stretch that almost wasn't pleasant. Burnet is kind of long, straight, and boring. I was pointing out a lot of good restaurants though (Phil's Ice House, Frisco, etc). That probably helped me at least. The final uphill section from Burnet to Duval was a little longer than I remembered, but I felt really surprisingly good. The weather was just perfect.
On the Duval leg, I felt like turning it up a bit. It was obvious we were going to be able to hit the 2:05 goal and I wanted to see how far under we could get. We caught up to Foho with about 2 miles to go. She had passed us earlier and was now struggling a little bit. I felt like turning on the burners and Stephanie stayed back to yell at... I mean encourage Foho. I passed a bunch of folks in the last mile and sprinted the end. Foho did great, PRing and beating my chip time.
Conclusions:
- 3M is a fun, well run race, and the downhill course is awesome. (compare my 2:01 with the 2:15 in San Antonio a couple of months ago)
- Running with a buddy is the way to go
- I'm actually inspired to rededicate myself to diet and training. 2:01 was only 4 minutes off my PR for that course. Imagine what I could do if I trained and dieted harder and didn't drink a bunch the night before!
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Playing for Change
I was turned on to this by some friends of mine. Neat idea and the song turned out fanstastic.
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
5 Things I've Learned About Running
An old friend of mine just started training for her first half marathon. I was trying to think up some advice and came up with the following. Maybe it'll help you too.
- Nice soft socks are the awesome. I like wigwams personally.
- Recovery after a long run is important. Ice baths are too painful for me, so I go for either a soak in Barton Springs (free before 9AM) or just lying on the floor with my legs up in the air against a wall.
- Massages are also the awesome. I try to get one in every couple of weeks. You don't have to spend a lot of $$. Massage Harmony here in Austin is good. Massage Envy is ok too.
- You can find good deals on shoes on ebay...like really good deals.
- Run with friends. Seriously...its worth it.
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